Did you go to Big Lots on Sunday?

I said I would and I did - dragging Mr. Paisley along kicking and screaming! We had our usual breakfast at IHOP - only we were early. Evidently much earlier than usual because A) there was hardly anyone there and B) 3 of the servers commented on it being early for us LOL. Yeah...they know us there. 

So we headed down to Big Lots - it's not even 10 minutes down the road from IHOP. It was busy! Luckily they open earlier than noon on Sunday. I grabbed my reusable shopping bags, my 20% off coupons and a cart and made a quick loop thru the important sections. First order of business - the Keurig! Well 2 of them. Now as I said, i've been watching them for ever (well, since January anyway) at Big Lots and they were tagged $79 which is what I expected. Then there was another sign that said 'special' $69 - shut up! I grabbed the one I could reach and then impatiently waited for the hubs to amble over to reach one of the 2 that were on the top shelf - yes, there were THREE in the store. I did indeed snag two of them...with the coupon they were about $58 each. For that price, I was getting one for the house as well as the cabin, even though we don't drink coffee. I mean, it does make hot chocolate and hot tea as well...both of which I drink. 

I also grabbed 3 cans of Rustoleum spray paint $3 each before the coupon. Satin Colonial Red, Satin Cream and Satin Espresso. Yummy! I always have spray painting projects. Outside of that, I tossed in 2, 2 packs of disposable 9x13 cake pans with covers. Ever since I changed office locations it's pot luck city. They come in handy.

Did I mention I shoved Mr. P and one coffee maker into a separate line so I could get 2 $20 purchase credits toward my next 20% off coupon? Yep...sure did.

Coupon Crazy Day!

Today I did my last minute CVS run for this week. I did pretty darn good I must say LOL.

Of course I scanned my card when I walked in and out came a $3/$10 First Aid purchase. Excellent, i'm planning to spend $20 on Excedrin - bring it!

The deal on Excedrin this week was spend $20, get $10 ECB. I had a $.75 coupon for 20ct or larger and a $1.50 coupon for 80ct or larger. I picked up a 250 count box of tablets for $15.49 and a 20ct box for $5.79. Bonus - the 20ct came with a free box of Excedrin PM attached. 

The math - $15.49 + $5.79 = $21.28,  $21.28 - $1.50 - $.75 = $18.78. Not bad - hey wait, I got that magic $3/$10 first aid coupon at the kiosk. Pain reliever = first aid. $18.78 - $3.00 = $15.78...and since my pre-coupon total met the $20 requirement, out popped $10 in ECB when I checked out. That makes my Excedrin purchase a whopping $5.78 - yep $.01 less than the shelf price of the 20ct bottle.

Onward...

1 box of root touch up hair color on sale for $5.99. This was not a planned purchase and I know I had a coupon for it. At home. Yep, I didn't take my coupon binder. %$#(*&!

I had a $5/$20 coupon from the newspaper this week so I wanted to make sure I hit $20 - how about that for an excuse?


Let's continue...


CANDY! Big candy sales this week. Buy 2 get 1 for a $.01 on a bunch of stuff. Stuff I had coupons for. Mr. Paisley will get a little something sweet in his lunch bag this week.  Nestle and a couple others were buy one get one for a $.01 so I grabbed 6 full size Butterfinger bars - Mr. Paisley always gets a Butterfinger Blizzard when we go by Dairy Queen. I also had 3 coupons for $.50/2 Nestle singles. When the hell did candy get so expensive? $1.19 for a chocolate bar...


$1.19 X 2 + .01 = $2.39 for 3 bars. $2.39 - $.50 = $1.89 or $.63 per bar. Now we're talking!


I did this deal 3 times. 


More candy...
Hershey's bites / drops were BOGO $.01. Regular price $4.49. So $4.50 for two bags. I had 4 coupons for $2/2.
$4.50 - $2.00 = $2.50 or $1.25 each. Hardly more than a regular price candy bar. Meh.


I did this deal twice - snagging 2 bags of plain chocolate and 2 bags of cookies n cream. They were out of Reese's and Special Dark. Boo...


They also had a deal on Schick Hydro razors and blades. Buy the razor for $8.99 get $4 in ECB and there was a $4/1 coupon in the Sunday paper.  Same deal on the 4 pack of blades only the coupon in the paper was for $2/1. Good deal either way. I got one of each and had the $4 and $2 coupons.


Funny thing...ha ha. When I checked out, the only ECB on my receipt was the $10 for the Excedrin. There was a line and only one cashier so I just went with it figuring I would just call them and have the regenerate them. Upon closer inspection of my receipt...they were ringing up BOGO free. Weird...but i'll take it! Why? The blades were $8.79 and free. I would have gotten $8 in ECB. WOOT - and extra $.79 in savings for me. 


$8.99 + $8.79 = $17.78.  $17.78 - $4.00 - $2.00 = $11.78.  $11.78 - $8.79 (for the bogo) = $2.99 for a razor and 5 blades. I'll take it.


Now in addition to those coupons, I had my $3 ECB because my birthday was last week. Plus a handful of ECB from my last CVS trip totaling $11.


My pre-sale, pre-coupon total was $72.15, my coupon savings was $35.75 and my sale discounts totaled $22.11. Add the $1.43 in sales tax and voila! 80% off retail.


I love CVS!

Oh yeah...I also found a penny by my car in the parking lot ;-) 

Weekly shopping at BJs

Well, it's not really weekly anymore since going to the budget. We still go in order to fill up my little sports car with that pricey juice, but unless we NEED something, we don't go into the actual store. It's a good thing.

It's been about 3 weeks since we last bought anything other than gas. So today was an IN day - woo hoo! 

I got:

1 - 9 pack of multi-grain English muffins

• $2.99

3 - boxes (36 count) granola thins (you know the ones...dipped in dark chocolate on one side...mmmm)

• $7.99 each

1 - gallon of skim milk

• $2.89

1 - box (12 count) single serve deep dish pizzas

• $11.99

1 - 1.5 lb jar of shredded Parmesan cheese

• $6.99

1 - 3 lb bunch of bananas

• $1.49

1 - big box of whole mushrooms (24oz maybe?)

• $3.79

1- jug of Gain fabric softener

• $9.99

1 - 12 ct Venus razor refills + a handle

• $31.99 (Seriously...SERIOUSLY? WTH? Are they gold plated?)

1 - 3 pk Satin Care shave cream

• $5.99

1 - 30 pk of Scott extra soft potty paper

• $18.99

Total $121.07 + $4.36 in sales tax (that's $125.43 if you don't want to do the math)

But wait...you  know I had coupons.

$.55/1 Satin Care (too bad I didn't have 2 more)

$3/1 Gain liquid fabric softener

$1/1 Red Baron Singles pizza

$1/1 Scott bath tissue

$5 off 3 products from a given page in the ad magazine (in this case, the granola thins)

$5.99 free Satin Care when you buy any Venus razor refills

$5 off Gain liquid fabric softener (which I don't think is right).

Grand total $103.89 and Mr. Paisley is fired from doing self check out because my coupons are always screwed up!

There's 1 missing and 1 that is wrong.

There should have been a $3 and $4 off the Gain (one manufacturer, one BJs), there should have been a $3 and a $1 off the Scott's (one manufacturer, one BJs) - I don't know what the other $5 was for, I know I only had 1 $5 coupon. So i'm missing $1... DISLIKE. 

Yep, he was a bag boy in high school and he's fixin' to become bag boy at BJs when we use the self check out. That's twice that i've looked and found missing coupons. Grrrrr....

Publix...where shopping is a pleasure

I admit it. I haven't been grocery shopping in...ummm well, let's not go there. Let's just say the Paisley Family is going on a budget diet...errr...well the Paisley Family is GETTING a budget! There we go...at the ripe old age of...yeah, i'm not saying. It's time to grow up and stop wasting so much money. The Mr. and I are going cash only during the week and we each have a $100 allowance - no questions asked, but when it's gone it's gone.

I figured it I was going to have to stop spending anywhere from $2.14 to dang near $20 for lunch (let's not even talk about breakfast) that I better buy some groceries.

Ready? Here we go...I paid $17.76 for:

• 13 boxes of Green Giant frozen veggies
• 3 bags of Armour meatballs
• 1 Hormel Parmesan Pork Loin
• 4 large loaves of Cole's frozen garlic bread
• 2 bags of Sargento reduced fat cheddar cheese, shredded
• 2 cans of Publix carrots (for my crockpot chicken noodle soup - did you know Green Giant doesn't do canned carrots? Yeah...GG was BOGO, but this Publix had no GG carrots, no space for them and WHY are the carrots all grouped together? The other veggies are sorted by brand, but all the canned carrots are together...weird)
• 6 packages of Ball Park bun size hot dogs (we have a BBQ coming up...holla!)
• 1 packages of ham steaks (2...for me to cook for lunch as Mr. P hates ham)
• 1 bottle of Frank's wing sauce
• 2 packages of small boneless pork chops (4 in each - awesome for a quick dinner when you forget to thaw something)
• 1lb of ground sirloin
• 2 packages of Butoni ref. pasta
• 4 jars of Bertolli pasta sauce
• 1 small can of sauerkraut (hey! Mr. P slipped that one in there...*gag*)
• 20 pack of Diet Coke (really? I want my other 4 cans Coke people!)
• 2 bags of Snyder's pretzels
• 4 small sweet potatoes
• 2 small containers of Sorrento part skim ricotta cheese (mmm stuffed mushrooms!)
• 1 family size bag of Pictsweet green beans (best frozen green beans EVER)
• 1 box of Jell-o Cookies n Cream pudding mix (I was hungry and it jumped into the cart)

WHEW! Oh and a rain check for Crisco EVOO because it was BOGO and they were out (and I have 2 $.75 off coupons - woot!)

Grand total:  $140.73

- $8.99 in store coupons

- $14.70 in manufacturer's coupons

- $35.83 in promo savings (ie BOGOs and 2-fers)

- $63.45 leftover on a $100 gift card that Mr. P got from work since he worked 2 shifts with less than 8 hours off in between.

I didn't have a coupon for the Diet Coke (because I neglected to print one before I left), or the Jell-o pudding, the sweet potatoes, ground sirloin, ham steaks, pork chops, green beans, carrots, or kraut...nor where they on any sort of sale. The garlic bread was BOGO...and i'll get another purdy reusable grocery bag with my receipt and 3 UPCs from the Cole's stuff - it has PAISLEY on it...and I love the one I have (it's shorter, but longer than the ones they sell at the grocery store)

Everything else was on sale and I had coupons.

Frozen veggies 10/$10 + 3 $.60/3 and 2 $.50/2 coupons = $.85 per box

Hot dogs BOGO + 3 $.75/2 coupons = $1.12 per pack

Garlic bread BOGO = $1.40 per loaf

Ricotta cheese 2/$5 + 2 $1/1 coupons = $1.50 each

Pork loin $7.99 (reg. price) + $1/1 coupon = $6.99 (one is enough to feed 6 people or Mr. P and I for dinner and lunch the next day)

Wing sauce $2.39 (reg. price) - $.50 coupon = $1.89

Pretzels were $3.99 each, but on sale for 2/$4, + a Publix coupons to get 1 free with the Diet Coke 20 pack, + $1/2 coupon...the cashier rang up the Publix coupon for $3.99 off, so really I got 2 free bags of pretzels and paid $4.99 for the case of Diet Coke (kicking myself for not printing a coupon before I left!)

Meatballs were 2/$5, + 3 $.55/1 coupons = $1.95 per bag (1 bag will make spaghetti and meatballs for the two of us 3 times)

Pasta Sauce was BOGO + 2 $1.50/2 coupons = $.65 per jar

Pasta was 2/$7 + $1/1 coupon = $3 each (not great and I should have had 2 coupons, but for some reason I didn't)

Cheese was 2/$4 + hmmm looks like she didn't scan my cheese coupon - dang it! should have been $.40/2 and that isn't on my receipt. Well we'll call it $2 each (which makes me mad).

and $5/$30 Publix coupon

And I was in and out in less than an hour.